Art & Design

QCC’s growing and wide ranging art programs offers students opportunities in areas across many disciplines. We offer degree programs in digital art and design, photography, fine art, and museum and gallery studies. In addition, the department offers special events, lecture series, and internships.

It is the mission of the Department of Art and Design to provide each student with a strong foundation in the traditional techniques and processes utilized in the creation of visual art; to offer students an opportunity to understand the historical importance that visual art has in human society and to gain critical thinking skills through writing and the collaborative discussion of artworks; to assist students in the development of a personal approach to making visual art; and to create an environment for students to incorporate new technologies into the process of creating visual art.

Recent Events

When asked whether his photographs should be considered "art", Bob Rogers quotes the anthropologist Marvin Harris who states, "No one has succeeded in formulating a definition of art that would permit an anthropologist to segregate art from nonart in all the cultures of the world."

It is with great pleasure and pride that the Department of Art & Design presented a diverse array of work by a talented group of our students for the 2016 QCC student exhibition. The student exhibition coincided with the display of faculty work in our faculty exhibition.

Top Department Stories

Visiting Artist

November 2016 - 'hello' in smallish simple black type face on a white screen was Oasa Duverney's greeting, the sentiment was echoed in her own soft-spoken tone when she welcomed her audience, students and guests of host, Professor Freya Powell of the QCC Art and Design Department. Duverney had composed a free verse poem to go with her opening images: the first, a black and white drawing of Albert Einstein adjacent to a black and white drawing of Al Sharpton. "Two Als walk into a bar", she announced.

Visiting Artist

29 March 2016 - It was a full house in attendance for Maria Hupfield, visiting artist and guest of Professor Kat Griefen, herself the head of QCC's Gallery and Museum Studies Program. Hupfield did not disappoint. Standing to deliver she was confident and striking, modest and matter-of-fact in manner with an uncanny knack to engage. She introduced herself in both English and Ojibway, the language of the Anishinaabe Native Americans of Canada. She stated it is a reminder of who I am and where I come from. For the next hour and a half we were treated to who she was, where she came from and where she was headed.

Students

Attending the UN DPI/NGO inaugural briefing with the Women’s Caucus for Art’s two new Youth Representatives, Soha Farooqui and Miranda Barnes (both interns from the Department of Art and Design at Queensborough Community College, CUNY) made for a memorable and particularly inspiring day. Jeff Brez, UN DPI Chief of NGO Relations, Advocacy and Special Events, began the event with a warm welcome and a preview of the year ahead for the NGO community. He noted that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, and quoted Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s observations that “the year 2015 is a once in a generation opportunity. Our goal is to put people at the center, and protect our one and only planet. Our duty is to end poverty, leave no one behind, and build lives of dignity for all.

Department Update

New Student Gallery for the Art and Design DepartmentProf. Griefen and students in the Art & Design Gallery

An exciting new exhibition space opened in the Fall of 2014 in Art and Design Department. The new gallery located in the “C” Building, Room 204-A acts as an experimental laboratory for ideas and creative expression in which students can develop their talents as future artist and curators.

The gallery is student-run, providing invaluable practical experience for students and serves as an ongoing counterpart to the annual Art Students' Exhibition held every spring at our QCC Art Gallery.

The first show in the gallery was held at the time of it’s opening and featured a variety of works in different media including collage, drawing and photography. Subsequent shows and exhitbs have provided a platform for our students to showcase their works.